Last night, Amy and myself, along with our friends Karolina, Dave, Jennie and Gordon went to Sidebar for dinner and then hit The Fox Theater to see Band of Horses. I don’t have the set list yet, but they played a mix of songs from Everything All The Time and Cease to Begin as well as some songs off their new album, which, if I heard them right is titled “My Rainbows”. The vocals from Ben Bridwell were impressive, although you could definitely hear his voice strain by the end of the encore. The guy puts a lot of energy into each song and it seems obvious to me that he is the personality in the band.

If I had to describe in one word, what feeling I walked away with after the show; happiness. Their music is really uplifting, which is strange to say, since I’ve been listening to them for years and never thought about how happy of a vibe they promote in their words and lyrics. They kicked off the show with a great performance of “The Great Salt Lake”. They played every song I could have hoped for and their set lasted about 90 minutes. A huge bigfoot lookin’ dude next to us yelled at the band towards the end of the show with “islands on the coast, play that shit!”. The band ignored the request and instead, I believe, played “No One’s Gonna Love You”.

What made the whole experience even sweeter, was the fact that we were able to see Band of Horses at the recently renovated Fox Theater in Oakland. What an awesome venue this was. The detail and finish on the place was incredible and the layout had a great flow to it. I am looking forward to seeing a wide array of live performances at this theater over the coming years and am absolutely psyched for the city and what that theater will do for Midtown Oakland.

A great meal, great beer, good friends and a seriously rockin’ band in a beautiful theater. What else do you need?